Intel's 28-core Xeon W-3175X will fetch more than £4,000

[Tipup]

CHIPMAKER Intel's much-hyped 28-core processor might be cheaper than initially thought at, er, £4,000. 

Intel first announced the 9th-gen Xeon W-3175X back in October, at the time promising that the 28-core CPU would be available to buy in December.

Although that still hasn't happened, WCCFTech has spotted a premature listing at retailer Kikatek which lists the CPU for an eye-watering £4,045, discounted from its alleged RRP of £5,999. 

While this will likely have AMD rubbing its hands together, this latest leak suggests that the Xeon W-3175X will actually be more attainable than previously thought; earlier leaks had suggested that the chip could fetch as much as £10,000. 

The 14nm Intel Xeon W-3175X processor features 56 threads to go alongside its 28 cores, and can hit clockspeeds of 4.3GHz; hardly impressive given the when the Core i9-9900K can hit 5GHz. However, the CPU, which takes aim at ultra high-end workstations, ships unlocked, so so overclockers can roll up their sleeves squeeze more performance out of the pricey processor. 

The Xeon W-3175X also provides support for up to 512GB of 6-channel DDR4 RAM running at 2666MHz, with a 38.5MB of Intel Smart Cache, so expect it to help handle hefty video files with relative ease, providing its setup in an appropriate workstation.

Leaked benchmarks put the Xeon W-3175X in the same performance arena at AMD's Threadripper 2990X processor, which comes with a price tag of some £1,600 yet offers 32 cores and 64 threads.

AMD's cheaper CPUs are seemingly wooing buyers from Intel, too; according to German e-tailer Mindfactory.de, AMD processors outsold Intel two-to-one throughout November. The retailer's stats show that the former sold more than 16,000 chips last month, marking the largest volume of processors ever sold at the e-tailer during any given month. µ